Bleach 562 – Bloody Murder

If we look at this battle from Mask de Masculine’s point of view, he’s actually facing quite the difficult odds, with 2 captains and 5 vice-captains against him one after the other. In addition, it might be difficult to consider Rukia and Renji to be on vice-captain level now after they have received significant power-spikes through the Soul Palace training. Despite how obnoxious and ridiculous Mask looks, he’s actually done very well for the sake of his fan James (the same way Ichigo wins all his battles). His next challenge however, may prove insurmountable for him, as Renji counters all of his abilities with ease. Whatever steroid he received from the Zero Squad, it’s proving to be incredibly effective and able to stop attacks that were able to one-shot captain-level vizards (keeping in mind the attacks that defeated Rose were actually several orders of magnitude weaker). While Mask is busy pounding away with his star punches, Renji even manages to butcher James with a few strikes, who had survived after being sliced in half. That was quite brutal, but he did what he had to do, and in a way, Renji is more bad-ass as a stone-cold killer and spitting out some sweet dialogue, as opposed to explaining his abilities while fighting. It’s amusing seeing the roles reversed, with Mask seeing himself as the hero and the shinigami as villains, but we should keep in mind that neither side are exactly angels in this war. Although Rukia didn’t get to fight, I have a feeling she’s going to be a monster now too, with bankai achieved too hopefully. Although Mask is getting destroyed at the moment, he may still be able to launch a counterattack with another secret power and maybe force Renji to release his bankai, which should also be a lot stronger now. Seeing them now however I have to wonder just how crazily strong Byakuya and Ichigo are going to be once they get back to Soul Society; with every strike, they will be destroying cities.

I apologize for the late post; I’ve been travelling for the past week. Hope everyone has a great Christmas.

Bleh like any of this matters. Whatever super powers Renji has gained will be forgotten and he will be one shotted by whatever faceless time-wasting villain he fights next so someone else can rescue him. Who even cares? This is all just filler to keep the manga going and has no real importance to the plot.

Mask de Masculine gets stronger by his fans cheering for him right? James cheered for him while his ear drums were destroyed right? He couldn’t actually “hear” James cheer for him right? So does that mean anyone could cheer for him from miles away since he doesn’t have to actually hear people cheer- Ho ho ho! Merry Christmas!

I think it’s more like he needs to acknowledge that he’s receiving cheers. Even if his ears cannot hear the cheers, so long as he’s aware that he’s being cheered for (and is, in fact being cheered for), he receives the boost.

Renji is pretty strong now, don’t you think? The Mask was using punches 10x stronger than the ones that destroyed the other 5 captain-lvl opponents (Hisagi, Ikkaku, Yumichika, Kensei, Rose). This quincy is easily one of the strongest we’ve seen so far, and he’s not exactly comic relief either, unless you want to compare him to Don Kanonji or Kon. If you think about it, Renji is finally fighting an opponent without either losing or being humiliated (e.g., Szayel). He is fighting someone who could body all of the Espada in an instant, and seemingly beating him just by tanking all his hits with no damage. Due to how predictable most fights go, Renji should easily win after using bankai, considering he took the Mask’s strongest attacks (stronger than the ones that wiped out the other captains) without much effort.

I think that the only mistake that Kubo made was to keep Byakuya alive, as current Renji easily surpasses the old Byakuya. To keep the rivalry alive, current Byakuya will most likely rival Kenpachi, probably keeping Renji in the Vice Captain position. Strength-wise, however, he should be above Shikai Shunsui and Ukitake. If Renji is no-selling all of Mask’s attacks, think about what he could do to all of the Stern Ritter who are weaker than Mask.

With that said, I really do see Renji approaching Aizen’s level of power. I expect all of the current junior captains and perhaps Lieutenants to surpass all of the older captains in power at the end of the series.